red herring
by this little heart of mine
Summary: "If you just told her you liked her, she wouldn't even be dancing with him now." He says it the same time that he's drinking his punch which makes him choke on said punch. "Dez! Not cool. And I don't like Ally, we're just friends." / or, Austin keeps slipping up and thankfully he's able to distract Ally from what he really wants to say / oneshot.


Hello people of fanfiction! welcome to my first Auslly story! I started watching Austin and Ally summer last year and I have been obsessed ever since lol. This is actually a short story I submitted for my Creative Writing class and I hope you enjoy reading ^_^

Also, if you ever want to follow me and fangirl about stuff, you can follow me at _fandomobsessed :D

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Red Herring

It's completely accidental when three little words slip out.

"What?"

His eyes bug out and his mind blanks for a few milliseconds before responding, "I was talking about my yogurt. You know I _love_ yogurt."

She looks at him weirdly and so he asks her how her Geography test went. She lights up and starts telling him how she's sure to get an A. He would've been embarrassed at his lack of conversational skills if he wasn't too relieved that she didn't notice his little slip-up.

He heaves a sigh of relief.

-0-0-0-

They're walking home from school and she's talking animatedly about the concert she went to last night complete with hand gestures and facial expressions. He's not really listening to what she's saying – which is probably a bad idea – but she just looks adorable with how her eyes light up and she's grinning so wide and he's so distracted that he accidentally voices out his thoughts.

She stops and raises a brow at him and he stutters before making up an excuse. "Um – I mean – Taylor Swift, yeah, she's really pretty."

She squints at him and he almost runs away but she buys it and continues talking about the concert.

He heaves another sigh of relief.

-0-0-0-

It's Sunday night and way past his bedtime but he can't seem to fall asleep. He'd turn on his light but his mom might see and scold him for staying up late on a school night. Besides, his glow-in-the-dark galaxy is pretty neat. He closes his eyes to try and sleep but then all he sees is how happy she looked when he bought her a new book for her birthday.

It doesn't help that his mind is whirling with thoughts of her too.

He sighs. He'd never been one to hide his feelings so he doesn't understand why he's doing it now, or why is it so hard to tell her, for that matter. He's starting to regret not watching all those romance movies with her.

He turns on his side and looks at the clock on his bedside table. Why can't he fall asleep?

He's given her lots of gifts before so why is it any different now?

He knows the answer but it's not like he'll actually admit it. Oh well, guess it's another sleepless night.

-0-0-0-

It is prom night and he's sulking in the corner of the gym, watching as she dances with her date. They've already agreed to go together along with some of their friends but someone asked her at the last minute.

Stupid jock.

One of his friends sit beside him and asks, "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean? Nothing's up with me."

"Well, you've been sulking here by yourself glaring at Greg," his friend points out and he shifts his glare at him. "I was not glaring."

His friend, seemingly unfazed by his glare, shrugs. "If you just told her you liked her, she wouldn't even be dancing with him now."

He says it the same time that he's drinking his punch which makes him choke on said punch. He gets his bearings after a while and responds, "Dez! Not cool. And I don't like Ally, we're just friends."

His friend claps his shoulder and looks at him pityingly. "Whatever you say."

-0-0-0-

It's almost time for the last dance when Greg approaches him. "Hey man. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, had I known that there was something between you and Ally, I wouldn't have asked her to prom."

Cue the choking.

"There's nothing going on between me and Ally," he says. When will people get it?

"Oh, well, your friends were right," Greg chuckles and, really, this guy was starting to annoy him. Who did he think he is, talking to his friends and laughing at him? Greg must've noticed the confused and mildly irritated look he was giving him because he puts his hands up in mock surrender and says, "Your friends, Trish and Dez, they went to talk to me a while ago and told me all about you. They said if I ever brought it up you'd deny it."

"I'm not denying anything!"

"Okay, okay. Whatever you say, look, I'm just the new guy here and I would never try to get in between anyone. It's just that Ally's pretty much my only friend here right now and she seems fun to hang out with."

Right, in all his antagonism – which he'll never actually admit to having – he'd forgotten that Greg was a transfer and didn't really know anyone besides Ally who had been his welcome buddy.

"For the record, it wasn't entirely Dez and Trish's fault. I know you won't believe me but she's totally smitten with you too, hasn't stopped talking about you actually," Greg tells him before walking away.

People have got to stop springing up news on him while he's drinking.

-0-0-0-

Two weeks since prom and he still can't stop thinking about what Greg told him. He really, _really_, wants to know if she does feel the same way about him but for now, all he can do is hope.

Which is a very bad idea if she actually doesn't feel the same.

Ally breaks him out of his thoughts. "Austin? Austin! You're blanking out on me again." she calls. "Sorry, I'm just a little distracted."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious, but this test is very important. It accounts for a third of our final grade and you won't be able to move to the next grade if you fail this class."

Failing is not an option. Failing means summer school and summer school means not spending time with Ally.

"But we've been studying for three hours," he exasperates. "Can we take a break?"

She rolls her eyes but concedes, putting her notes aside and stretching her legs. "What were you thinking about anyway?"

His pencil snaps and racks his brain for an excuse before settling with, "I need a sharpener."

She shakes her head and walks over to her bag to get her sharpener and hands it to him. He tries to avoid eye contact with Ally who he thinks is still waiting for an answer so she focuses all his attention on sharpening his pencil.

Too much focus.

When it breaks again on his third try, Ally grabs the pencil and sharpener from him and accomplishes the task herself. She hands him the pencil and he grins sheepishly at her. She only shakes her head before going back to her bag to put the sharpener back. "Okay, you've had your break, let's move on to derivatives," she says, fishing for her Calculus book.

She seems to let go of the topic of his thoughts and he sighs in relief.

-0-0-0-

Dez sneaks up on him one Thursday afternoon. "So when are you going to tell her?" he asks, which makes him slam his locker shut. His locker that had his other hand resting on the edge of it.

He's starting to regret putting pictures up in his locker.

After a few frantic seconds of him screaming in an abnormally high pitch while Dez flails around uselessly, he successfully opens his locker. "Dez!"

"I'm sorry! I panicked!"

"Well you shouldn't have sneaked up on me like that!" he says, nursing his – probably broken – fingers. Ally and Trish round the corner laughing about something but stop when they see the scene in front of them.

"What happened?" Ally asks, inspecting Austin's fingers.

"Dez sneaked up on me and I accidentally shut my locker with my fingers in it," he answers while trying to ignore the tingles in his hands. If he tells himself it's just the hurt from being slammed in a locker maybe it'll actually be true.

That's not to say that his fingers are screaming in pain right now.

"Well if you would just tell her instead of staring at her picture in your locker then maybe –" He quickly snatches his hand from Ally and covers Dez's mouth, who mumbles the last of his sentence. Ally looks at him suspiciously and Trish gives him a knowing glance to which he replies with a sheepish grin.

"What picture?"

"Nothing!" He replies quickly, which makes Ally think that it is definitely _not_ something.

"Austin –"

"Can you go to the nurse with me? I'm pretty sure at least one of my fingers is broken." He grabs Ally's hand with his non-injured one and heads to the clinic.

"That boy better tell Ally soon before he breaks all his bones." Trish tells Dez as they watch Austin and Ally walk away.

Thankfully, Ally doesn't ask him about the picture anymore and he heaves a sigh of relief.

-0-0-0-

It's the last day of school and he's anxiously looking at the clock as it ticks.

_Six more minutes_.

He'd also compute how much time it would take to get to where her class is and take her somewhere so he could tell her how he feels but he's not very good at Math so he'll just stick to counting down the time before classes are officially over.

He drums his fingers on his desk waiting for the bell to ring. Actually, he's not very sure he wants it to ring at all. As much as he would like to finally tell Ally his more than friendly feelings towards her, he's very nervous. And terrified.

Maybe he shouldn't have eaten all those pancakes.

He glances at the clock one more time and wipes the sweat above his brows. He doesn't know if he's willing the time to slow down or speed up. One the one hand, slowing down would mean more time before he has to confess his feelings and on the other, speeding up would mean it could just be done and over with.

Except if she rejects him.

Not only would that be very painful but it also very awkward. He did not risk everything just to lose it all. Hence, why he'd rather just admire her from afar and keep all these feelings to himself. He could very much coward out of this just like every other chance he's had, but he's on a deadline. She's going to visit her mom for the first two weeks of summer and by the time she's returned the moment would have passed. He'd have to wait another time.

He's lost all the courage he's mustered by then.

The bell rings and he could've given himself a whiplash with the speed he rose from his seat and went out of the room. He finds Ally by their locker with Trish a few minutes after.

"Hey, Ally."

Ally turns and beams at him. "Austin!" she says, hugging him. Trish smirks knowingly at him and he rolls his eyes. "I can't believe I won't see you guys for two weeks! I'm going to miss you guys so much!"

"You're only going to be gone for two weeks and it's not like we can't video chat or anything," Trish tells her.

"I know, but it's so different actually being here with you guys."

He takes this as his cue and grabs her hand. "Hey Ally, I want to show you something." He leads her away from Trish who only waves at her.

"Austin, where are we going? What about Trish?"

"Trish will meet us later. I just have to show you this thing," he tells her. He pushes the door open to the rooftop and he lets go of her hand to put a brick at the door. "The door gets jammed sometimes, I'd rather not get stuck in here."

She walks over to the edge where she can see a clear view of the sunset. "It's beautiful."

He moves to stand next to her, "Not as beautiful as you."

She blinks. "What?"

He hears his heart _thump-thump-thumping_.

Maybe he'd feel a whole lot more comfortable if he actually knew what to say. Scratch that – he'd feel a whole lot more comfortable if he _remembered_ what to say.

He had prepared a whole speech but then she looks so breathtaking with the orange sky reflecting on her face and she was not supposed to hear him calling her beautiful so instead he shuts his eyes and settles for word vomit, muttering three little words.

It's quiet and he thinks she's run away and he doesn't want to risk opening his eyes. It's still quiet and he almost opens his eyes when he feels something on his lips and his eyes closes shut again.

When he opens his eyes, she's smiling at him.

"So does that mean…?"

"Yes."

He hugs her then and she laughs at his excitement. They talk about their plans for the summer when she returns and they head over to Trish's house where an end-of-the-school-year party is ongoing. They leave the party together and he walks her home. She leaves early the next morning so they say goodbye and she hugs him goodnight.

-0-0-0-

It's Friday night and it's way past his bedtime but he can't seem to fall asleep. Although this time, it's for a completely different reason. He thinks back to how and when it all began and up to the moment he hugs him goodnight. He can't wait until she gets back from her trip where they will embark on a whole new adventure. He looks at his glow-in-the-dark galaxy one last time before closing his eyes.

He heaves a sigh of relief.

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Ta da! Shoot me a review if you'd like (:


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